Sue Scheible is a staff reporter for The Patriot Ledger who writes a weekly column, A Good Age, about life after 50. In her blog, she shares extra anecdotes about the people she meets, readers' e-mails, videos, photos and phone messages, and ideas
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Sue Scheible is a staff reporter for The Patriot Ledger who writes a weekly column, A Good Age, about life after 50. In her blog, she shares extra anecdotes about the people she meets, readers' e-mails, videos, photos and phone messages, and ideas for what to do in retirement or to prepare for retirement. Sometimes she just likes to share what she's doing that is fun and engaging, often in videos or photos, or my family situations. She may explore her reactions to issues of aging and pass along good information for family members and caregivers. This is also a good place to recognize some of the many dedicated people who work in the elder services and geriatric care field.

Congratulations to UMass-Boston Professor Nina Silverstein who this week is receiving an impressive Mentorship Award from the Association of Gerontology in Higher Education.

She has been selected as the 2014 recipient of the Hiram J. Friedsam Mentorship Award. Dr. Friedsam was an outstanding teacher, researcher, colleague, and mentor to students, faculty, and administrators. The association recognized Dr. Silverstein for her similar qualities and achievements in mentorship. She also has done research on aging issues on the South Shore.

She will receive the award and present a lecture at AGHE's 40th Annual Meeting and Educational Leadership Conference going on now in Denver.

I met Silverstein some years ago when I began writing about aging initiatives at UMass-Boston and she was always involving the students in worthwhile new ventures. She is a UMass Gerontology Institute fellow and director of the Undergraduate Gerontology Program.

In 2004, I reported that she invited South Shore drivers "to participate in an exciting new study that Silverstein is doing to learn more about the ways of prolonging the safe-driving years of seniors." The article continued:"Seniors 70 and older will be shown some simple low-cost, low-technology features that can improve their safety and comfort while driving. They will be asked to try using some of the features; then four to six weeks later, 100 of them will be asked if they have found any of the features useful."

That's just one area where Silverstein was ahead of the aging curve.

In 1994, Silverstein led students, some from the South Shore, on a research project to learn more about why some seniors did not receive the financial and medical help to which they were entitled. They interviewed people believed to be eligible for the SSI program.

Silverstein and her students identified obstacles that kept seniors from completing the detailed applications for SSI, which required copies of passports, birth certificates, bank accounts, etc. She always had the ability to identify with the lives of the low-income seniors and shared that with her students.

It is very important to have age-wise mentors for young people at the university level, when there is great potential for drawing more bright, innovative minds into the field of gerontology.

Negative stereotypes of aging persist in this society and the sooner the students can see beyond those -- and many do -- the more progressive policies will become.

At Curry College in Milton, the nursing students work with seniors at the Simon C. Fireman Community in Randolph and have found, I believe, that the elders also can sometimes serve as mentors.